I’ll give you the quote; you guess the politician who said it.<\/p>\n
“‘Stay the course’ is gone. We’re going to try and devise some new strategies, hopefully with the President’s concurrence,” the senator said. “Our soldiers, sailors and airmen should not be in there, risking their lives, losing their lives to stop a Civil War.”<\/p>\n
A Michael Moore-loving, cut-and-run Defeatocrat, right? Try Sen. John Warner<\/a>, Republican of Virginia, and the outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n I think it’s safe to say the administration is losing Warner quickly, and with him one of the more respected GOP voices on the military in the Senate. A month ago, Warner, upon returning from a trip to Iraq, said much of the country was taking “steps backwards<\/a>” and his optimism for the future was on the wane. He opened the door a bit to supporting a troop withdrawal, saying, “I assure you, in two or three months, if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it’s a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take? And I wouldn’t take off the table any option at this time.”<\/p>\n But yesterday’s pronouncements were even stronger, characterizing Iraq as a “civil war,” which our troops should not be involved in. I was particularly struck by Warner saying that lawmakers will devise some new strategies for Iraq, “hopefully with the president’s concurrence.”<\/p>\n I don’t want to read too much into this, but it’s almost as if Warner was saying he’d like Bush’s input on new strategies — but the president’s participation is not exactly necessary.<\/p>\n